On this season of “The Biggest Loser” Shauntina “Shay” Sorrells is the heaviest contestant in the history of the show.
The 30-year-old social worker from Newport Beach, California weighs in at 476 pounds.
Shay says that food is an addiction for her, and was a way to cope. Her mother was a heroin addict, and Shay lived in foster care until she was 18 years old. Prior to Shay going into foster care at age 5, she says there was a two-year period when she and her mother were homeless and there was a lack of food. Shay says “When there is a lack of food, all you do is crave it more. You desire it, so it becomes second nature to have it whenever and as much of it as you can. That became a huge part of my subconscious.”
Her own mother passed away three years ago from a blood clot in her lung due to her own obesity, and experience Shay says woke her up to the realities of her weight.
The show premieres Tuesday, September 15.